Hi all,
I've got another joist question that I'd appreciate a few comments on, totally separate to my various 'loft' posts.
Basically, in case you hadn't already read in another post, the back of our upstairs flat currently has it's exit to the rear yard downstairs, i.e. the stairs are inside the flat and eat up a fair portion of, what will become, our new kitchen. The plan is to move the door from downstairs to upstairs and bolt a new metal fire escape on the back of the house. I can then fit a new floor where the stairs used to be and all will be dandy.
Well, after a weekend of knocking various holes in walls to see how the joists run, this would appear to be the situation:-
- I can't disturb the existing floor joists since they support our downstairs neighbour's ceiling and I don't really want to be stung for a replastering bill.
- Joist A would appear to be supporting half (?) of the weight of the current floor and ceiling via Joist B, so I don't want to put any extra weight on Joist A OR B, which rules out simply shoving some new joists in and hanging between the wall and Joist B.
- Likewise, I can't really run a couple of longer new joists perpendicular to the existing joists, suspended between the back wall and Joist A, since again I would imagine Joist A would be supporting too much weight.
- I can't up-rate Joist A with steel on the back, since there's a concrete floor behind it.
SO, the only thing I can think of is to do this:-
Can anyone think of any problems with this or does anyone have any better ideas?
All of the joists in question are 65 x 175mm and the span from left to right is 2370mm. I tried downloading SuperBeam but it makes no sense. :-)
As a side note, if a joist hanger isn't quite at the right height, which of course it will be, what's the best way of 'packing' between the joist hanger and the joist to bring the joist up to the perfect height? Slate?
Anyway, cheers again in advance!
Andy